Resident Evil Revelations (Wii U) Review

It's hard to believe that the Resident Evil series has been around for over fifteen years now. The original game was initially released on the PlayStation back in 1996, but has since been released on just about every platform known to man. With the series tradition of ports and remakes, the latest instalment in the Resident Evil franchise is an enhanced port of the critically acclaimed Resident Evil: Revelations, which was released as a 3DS exclusive early last year. Cubed3 boards the Queen Zenobia once again to see how this high definition port of Resident Evil: Revelations fares against its portable cousin.

Resident Evil: Revelations stars the well-known Jill Valentine as the main protagonist, who is accompanied by her new partner, Parker Luciani - a fellow member of the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance and former agent of the Federal Bioterrorism Commission. Together, they set out on an assignment led by Director O'Brian, who has recently lost contact with Chris Redfield and his partner Jessica Sherawat. O'Brian directs Valentine and Luciani to the missing agents' last known location, the Queen Zenobia, a ship located in the Mediterranean Sea.

As well as following the activities of Chris, Jill and their new partners, Resident Evil: Revelations introduces two new characters to the series; Keith Lumley and Quint Cetcham. Whilst the game does have a light-hearted tone, mixed with a serious concept as a whole, the dialogue between these two new characters is even more hilarious - especially since Quint is the biggest nerd in the BSAA, meaning that Keith can always crack a joke or two about that.

Although originally a handheld title, Resident Evil: Revelations has very high production values, making it feel like a major instalment in the franchise. As well as adding some new content into the mix for this expanded port, Capcom have also made a few changes to the campaign and several improvements in Raid Mode.

Rather than taking the action based route which recent offerings in the franchise have done, Resident Evil: Revelations instead goes back to the series' roots of survival horror, including lots of closed-in places, which will make players feel really claustrophobic!

Throughout the campaign, players will come across various weapons and Custom Parts. Custom Parts can be assigned to weapons to increase specific stats of that weapon, such as the firing rate and size of the magazine. There are also some of these which are known as Illegal Custom Parts, which give weapons special abilities, like being able to charge shots before you fire them off - these charged shots knock the enemy back and do extra damage, meaning players can save ammo.

Speaking of ammo, Capcom have included a tougher difficulty for this version of Resident Evil: Revelations known as Infernal. This difficulty provides a real challenge for players, even veterans of the series will find themselves struggling at some point during Infernal. The difficulty basically consists of low ammo drop rates and extremely high enemy spawn rates; meaning that enemies are thrown at players left, right and centre whilst the player tries to fend them off with their limited ammo.

Before tacking this new challenge, it is recommended that players first get geared up for it, by playing through the game on Normal difficulty to pick up weapons and Custom Parts. Thankfully, weapons and Custom Parts can be carried over to the Infernal play-through by simply starting the New Game+ mode.

This wouldn't be a Resident Evil game without any form of an extra mode, but rather than the fan favourite Mercenaries making a return, Capcom decided to go all out and create a whole new mode known as Raid Mode.

Raid Mode is made up of twenty stages (plus a huge bonus stage!) which are usually short missions taken from segments of the campaign, but the selling point here is that players can also play with friends and strangers via. Nintendo Network. There is also a levelling up component in this mode, with players receiving an amount of experience points, which is dependent by how many enemies they killed and what rank they got for that stage.

Throughout Raid Mode, players will be able to find or purchase various different weapons which have their very own stats depending on what level the player has to be to equip the weapon. Custom Parts and Illegal Custom Parts can also be found throughout Raid Mode, but like the weapons they are tied to Raid Mode and cannot be equipped when playing the campaign.

As well as including all of the content from the 3DS version, Capcom have also added the fan favourite, H.U.N.K and FBC member, Rachael as playable characters in Raid Mode. Not only this, but all new Custom Parts have been included and there are also some unique weapons, known as "tagged" weapons. These have unique modifications, dependent on which tags they possess. For example, a weapon with the tag "Speed Shot" has increased fire rate and magazine size.

Another feature, which is exclusive to the Wii U version, is the ability to post Death Messages to Miiverse when players meet their fate in the campaign. Players can also post a Creature Message from within Raid Mode and it will be displayed when they show up in someone else's game. Whilst these aren't ground breaking features by any means, they are quite fun to utilise!

In terms of control methods Resident Evil: Revelations supports, players can play the game on the TV with the inventory and map displayed on the GamePad's touchscreen or they can play the game using just the TV with the GamePad as a controller, or solely on the GamePad. For those that don't feel comfortable using the Wii U's tablet controller, Capcom have included support for the Wii U Pro Controller. No Wii Remote and Nunchuck support though, sadly!

Gameplay

Similar to the 3DS version, but with dual analogue controls supported without needing to buy a secondary attachment. Slow and tense sections make the game feel like the older Resident Evil titles, which isn't a bad thing! Mixed with the fast-paced fun of Raid Mode, this becomes quite a balanced package, catering to both new and old fans of the series.

Graphics

Whilst impressive in all its glory on the 3DS screen, this upscaled version doesn't really add anything with a "wow" factor. Everything still looks great though, especially since it's an upgraded port of what was originally an already great looking handheld game!

Sound

The campaign is relatively quiet, aside from characters' dialogue and eerie sound effects, but this really makes the game tenser. As for the Raid Mode, the fast-paced action is well-accompanied by some upbeat tunes and sometimes eerie tunes for the slower paced stages.

Value

The campaign will last around 7 hours for those who want to obtain everything, which may not seem like a lot, but when combined with the tough challenge of the Infernal difficulty level and the in-depth Raid Mode experience, there's definitely plenty hours of fun to be had.

Cubed3 Rating

9/10

Exceptional - Gold Award

Resident Evil: Revelations is a great port of an already fantastic game and whilst it doesn't add much content worth writing home about, the new difficulty level and several improvements to Raid Mode are welcomed. For those that already own this game on the 3DS, it's pretty tough whether or not to recommend the game to them. If they do want to play through a new challenge though, the Infernal difficulty offers a true hardcore experience. However, to those who don't own a 3DS, this is their chance to pick up the definitive version of the game.

Adam Riley said:I've been playing the PC version and it's really enjoyable! It's a shame the Wii U version hasn't been selling too well

I'd imagine a big part of the early Wii U adopters are dedicated Nintendo fans who also have a 3DS and chances are most of them who were interested in the game before already bought it on the 3DS and didn't feel that it's worth buying again.

I bought it on the 3DS when it came out and really enjoyed it, especially the dozens of hours I spent playing Raid Mode with Mush. Money unfortunately doesn't grow on trees like in Animal Crossing, so I didn't buy it again.

I don't think it'd be worth buying again, unless you're a really hardcore RE fan. My concern about the Wii U eShop version is how big the file size is! I *was* going to try it, but I've only got an 8GB card spare at the moment

I bought it even though I own it on 3DS 'cause I'm a fool like that (and I love the game).

I must say I'm a little disappointed with it. They had the opportunity to upgrade some of the texture and maybe add a little more to the main game and it just seems to be an exact copy of the 3DS game with only the occasional graphical tweaks. Don't get me wrong, it's still a great game, it just doesn't stack up so well when compared to other games on the home systems.

After playing through it on 3DS and now Wii U I can honestly say I think the best version of the game is the original 3DS iteration. It's one of the few 3DS games that actually feels like the 3D effect has added something to the experience. It feels more immersive and alive when playsed on the 3D in my opinion. The 3D effect also added to certain effects (like rain blowing in through the window for example) on the handheld system which for me fall (quite literally) flat on the home console.

So if I had to direct someone to play a certain version of it I'd have to say 3DS. Turn off the lights plug in some earphones and turn up the volume.

why do you post from a bad source? and why do you keep posting these "attach rates" like they actually mean something? ps3 and 360 have sold millions more than wiiu, and therefore have plenty more non-hardcore owners than the wiiu does. the wiiu is really only appealing to the hardcore gamers right now because it is not the casual system seller that the original wii was. so it's obvious that even if these sales numbers were accurate, the attach rate you post for any game doesn't really mean anything at all. it just shows that the wiiu is only owned by the very hardcore right now. if the wiiu had also sold 70+ million, then yea, it would be fair to compare these attach rates.

Adam Riley said:I agree - people think that horror can't be done well on a handheld, but Capcom showed it works really well. I'd love to see Konami make the effort to do a proper 3DS Silent Hill!

Silent Hill would work really well on 3DS, I'd love to see it. It's a series based on atmosphere and I think 3D would really add to that. Here's hoping that now 3DS is selling really well, we'll see it appear.

I bought Zombie U expecting great things and I was pretty disappointed. I love the survival horror genre with Silent Hill 2 and Resident Evil 2 being in my personal top games list. Zombie U felt unfinished to me. I just don't get why some people think its great.

Trepe said:I bought Zombie U expecting great things and I was pretty disappointed. I love the survival horror genre with Silent Hill 2 and Resident Evil 2 being in my personal top games list. Zombie U felt unfinished to me. I just don't get why some people think its great.

I think its great because it feels like resident evil meets demon's souls and metroid. There are some really well done jump scares, and you're punished for playing it like an action game, due to the low ammo and low health.